Pace has made its second attempt in the space of five years to consolidate the global market for set-top boxes — which it already leads — by bidding for Motorola Home.

After acquiring Philips’ loss-making set-top box division in 2007, Pace overtook Motorola in the middle of 2010 to become the world’s largest maker of set-top boxes .

A combination with the Google-owned Motorola Home now would give it 25 per cent of the global market, allow it to make substantial cost savings and strengthen its position in the United States, where it has won a number of deals in recent years that